Monday, July 13, 2015

X-men Days of Future Past The Rogue Cut May Just Become Your Primary Cut

X-men Days of Future Past is arguably the best of the franchise. DOFP answered questions and tied together events of nearly 15 years of X-men movies together into a mostly coherent storyline, even canonizing the events of the much-decried X-men The Last Stand and X-men Origins: Wolverine. This time not many minded that those films were set in stone, either because, with DOFP, the stories were threaded into each other so neatly, or because after DOFP it doesn't matter anymore as the X-men universe has been "re-queled" into a fresh new universe. The movie was amazing. But fans learned that a certain figure has been cut in the process - Rogue.

When The Rogue Cut was announced, it was revealed that Rogue's scenes would once again inter-splice with the movie. It was certainly good news to have Rogue back and even better to have her expand the film a bit more because of the impact of her scenes to the latter part of the film, but a lot of fans have also wondered if The Rogue Cut would be that much different simply because of the inclusion of the character.

The good news is, The Rogue Cut, named after Rogue, IS a rogue cut itself. It takes some concepts from the previous films and fleshes them out to add color previously left unseen in the original film. The new scenes make a great movie even better. A couple of missions from characters are added. Speaking lines are given to everybody in the film and things that occur in the original are explained with "moments before" in the new film. Also the movie allows the emotions to linger in such a way that the original did not, spending a little more time on reaction shots and moments devoid of dialogue. All in all it may not be the same movie experience you had with DOFP. And that's great!

Now let's talk about those changes. SPOILERS FOLLOW.

LEAVE IF YOU DON'T WANNA BE SPOILED.

OKAY, I WARNED YOU. Now here goes:

Brian Singer didn't add Rogue back simply because he wanted Rogue back. He did it so he could have Ian McKellen's Magneto and Patrick Stewart's Xavier on one last mission together. In order to get Rogue in the team, Iceman informs them that they'll have to get Rogue from Cerebro where she is being held and experimented on (which explains the mutating Sentinels more as well). The three rescue her, Magneto gets to show off more metal-bending and Xavier proves he's a pretty badass pilot. Also Iceman dies very differently and in the X-Mansion.

Ian McKellen's Magneto's rescue of Rogue was intercut perfectly with how he retrieved his helmet(as Michael Fassbender) in the past. Seamlessly in-sync, down to the metal spheres and the parts where they retrieve the objects of their rescue. Rogue on the other hand lets us know that the Magneto/Xavier alliance is relatively new as she is visibly alarmed at seeing Magneto. When Rogue takes Kitty's power, it is apparent that she's much more in control than she ever used to be. It was also nice to see her acknowledge Logan, who she'd been anchored to in the first few X-films.

Bringing Rogue back also brings the Kitty-Bobby-Rogue love triangle to a head. It is more apparent in the new version that Kitty is in a relationship with Bobby, as opposed to how it was implied in the original. Kitty asks that Bobby bring himself back, only for Rogue to tell Kitty herself that Bobby did not make it.

The Rogue Cut also fleshes out the romance between Beast and Mystique. Instead of Raven/Mystique going off the grid after her encounter with Charles, she goes to the mansion and has quite the moment with Hank. This resolves the awkwardness in First Class where Hank basically tells her that no one will accept her the way she looks. It also fleshes out how Hank's serum works.

By extension, the real reason Raven goes to the mansion is to destroy Cerebro and prevent Xavier from tracking her. This is something that becomes a defining point that informs all the rest of the X-men films as Xavier says "she has cut ties".

Trask's motivations are further explained as well. He doesn't hate mutants, as he explains to Stryker. On the contrary, he admires them. However, they are, to him, the definite cause of our extinction, and the sole cause that can bring all man together. Trask also figures in the all-new mid-credits scene. We also get a lot more from President Nixon than being the decorative, obligatory President. Speaking of additional lines, Blink, Bishop, Sunspot, Warpath, Storm, and of course, Iceman and Kitty get more lines.

Big easter egg: It turns out that there are three children in Peter's house. We've already met the little sister. Another sister is upstairs. That makes it Peter and most likely- Wanda and Lorna. There's also a cute scene wherein Logan gets to talk to "Lorna".

Here's hoping you get to catch X-men Days of Future Past The Rogue Cut. You won't regret it!